


Memoirs of an Enchanted Holiday

by zinujone (haze221b)



Series: Recuerdos Vividos [5]
Category: Memories of the Alhambra (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Don't copy to another site, F/M, Gaming, Holidays, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:28:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28955709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haze221b/pseuds/zinujone
Summary: A ficlet on what could possibly happen with Yoo Jin-woo and Jung Hee-ju for the holiday season.
Relationships: Jung Hee Joo/Yoo Jin Woo, Jung Hee Joo/Yoo Jin Woo (Memories of the Alhambra)
Series: Recuerdos Vividos [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965610





	Memoirs of an Enchanted Holiday

**J ONE HOLDINGS**

**SEOUL HEADQUARTERS**

_DECEMBER 24, 2014_

_I've been wandering again for the first time in my life. I'd rather not show the pain or inflict it to others. This isn't the time to fool myself, besides I'm carefree enough to become the man I truly am. They made me, therefore I have nothing to lose._

The cold evening enveloped the whole city with glee, the children playing with their stuffed and plastic toys from the carnival, families in their households savouring the home cooked meals prepared for Christmas Eve. The City lights and wonderful pieces of romantic music for couples outside to watch and experience the warmth and love for the holiday season. 

It is Yoo Jin-woo's first Christmas alone after he finalized his divorce papers from the ill-fated marriage with Lee Su-jin six months ago.

He preferred to work late at night for the company instead of celebrating the holidays. With tons of papers to sign, he wouldn't have to miss anything with every single detail that he came up to the proposals from business partners and the collaboration with various sectors to improve and innovate with the technologies they invested in the recent year. It is usually a normal day for him, to no surprise. He stayed glued to his seat and finalized almost the gruesome paperwork. He is also thinking critically about his next vital movements for the future of JOne Holdings as his rival Cha Hyeong-seok is forming slowly his new tech company, New Word Soft. 

At the time the clock ticked 2:00am in the morning, he finds himself looking for Café Americano after signing the last and important deal with an American company to procure the materials acquired for the development of the augmented reality lenses to be tested by selective programmers in the Seoul and Barcelona Branch for the upcoming year. He went outside for coffee to keep himself awake but he witnessed the joyful children with their parents which reminded him of his unfortunate past. A lonely life that he has to endure without the important persons in his journey to share the success he made after ten years of sweat, hardwork and determination in establishing JOne Holdings. 

Park Seon-ho texted his friend to invite him over breakfast at his humble home, alongside Professor Cha but he declined the invitation due to a personal commitment, "I'm sorry, I couldn't make it today. Something really important that I have to do. I'll visit Prof. Cha's villa soon. I'll meet you there." 

Jin-woo returned inside his office to sleep on the couch, along with a blanket from the box of his personal items. He summoned his loyal secretary, Seo Jeong-hun, to be present at Christmas Day in the morning for an important errand which he constantly does secretly for the holidays. 

Jeong-hun arrived the next morning to see his boss fall asleep peacefully by seeing him holding the throw pillow and he did a run-through to all the paperworks Jin-woo accomplished for the night. They went to the cemetery to visit the grave of his beloved parents, Mr. Yoo Eun-sik and Ms. Koo Deum-jeung. It's the only time he will be able to visit their grave and he does it annually during Christmas Day. With Jeong-hun, he somehow treated Jin-woo like a part of his family, even though he shows his nonchalant behaviour to him most of the time. Secretary Seo's patience never wavered at this moment even though his boss suffered from the upside downs in his private life which he wouldn't want to talk about unless there's chaos coming from the former. 

As they arrived, Jeong-hun waited outside of the sanctuary alongside his personal driver. Jin-woo went ahead and bought sunflowers to honour his late parents. 

" _Abeoji, eomma_... it's been years since I last visited here. Work kept me occupied in the past few days. I sincerely wish to share these victories with you."

It's a chilling moment for him to witness them for this crucial time. He was heartbroken at the same time, kept himself guarded by concealing his true feelings of rage from the misery and neglect that led him to stay apart and experience losing his own family back then. He missed those beautiful days of Christmas with them.

Jin-woo, as a child, deemed as an overachiever gets to receive the most precious presents on Christmas Day as being the only child of the Yoo Family. He was loved by his relatives who came to visit the young child on Christmas Day. Years ago, Jin-woo's parents died in a fatal car accident during a Spring out of town trip in Busan. A young Jin-woo got trauma from the accident and recovered months before returning to school. Years later, after passing the CSAT, Jin-woo entered the university to pursue Electrical Engineering, followed by his Doctoral Degree wherein he met Cha Hyeong-seok and sunbae-nim, Park Seon-ho. His skills, intelligence and abilities as a young man made him secure his life alone as a young adult by renting an apartment in Daejeon District while simultaneously working part-time to tech companies as an assistant with a scholarship. 

At the first quarter of the year he will be visiting Silicon Valley in San Francisco, California to test the Augmented Reality lenses they purchased for product testing. Also, he was invited to become one of the panelists to the content developers conference. Programmers from the different parts of the world were given a chance to excel their skills in content development and JOne Holdings will be one of the pioneer companies that participated in this endeavour.

**HOSTEL BONITA**

**Granada, Spain**

_DECEMBER 24, 2014_

Jung Hee-ju's grandmother prepared a feast for their family. The hostel work was done for the entire year and they spent it with the dormitory students and some guests which they invited to the hostel's dining table. 

Meanwhile, her younger siblings, Min-ju helped her halmeoni to prepare the food for the Christmas dinner. Se-ju was busy researching computer games and drafting the characters needed for the video game he and Marco Han were creating. They currently dwell on crafting the weapons required which is located at the antique shop where his sister knew who the owner is. 

Few days ago, she sent a guide book of the antiques in Alhambra to him for additional knowledge of her work, "Here, Se-ju. This might be useful if you wanted to know the preserved relics of the Alhambra. Make use of the epigraphic poems too."

"Thank you, _Noona_." he expressed his gratitude to her sister.

When the whole Jung Family and guests are about to eat, Min-ju knocked on the door of her brother to eat for Christmas Eve dinner but he exclaimed, "I'm unfinished yet!" 

She ignored Se-ju once again and returned to Hee-ju about his brother. " _Eonni_ , Seju-ah is quite busy." "Let him be. He will eat when he wants to," Hee-ju said to her younger sister while placing the plates at their wooden table. 

The dormitory students went downstairs to eat for the Christmas feast with the Jung family. Including some tourists who capped off their night trip with their Spanish friends at the nearest pub.

Hee-ju approached them as they went to the kitchen, "Come here, let's eat." 

They sat together at the dining table, Hee-ju as the head of the family and hostel distributed some gifts to their long-time guests and students and delivered a short message to them, "You know, thank you for celebrating Christmas with us at this time. Halmeoni is energized to see all of you here. I know this gifts are just a little but I hope you appreciate it." 

"Your compassionate heart never ceases to amaze us, Hee-ju. It makes our stay here worthwhile," a guest told her. 

Se-ju opened the connecting door from their house and hostel, he's planning to watch the TV to dig in about the press conference of J One Holdings and New Word Soft's projects for the following year. 

Yoo Jin-woo, CEO of J One Holdings will be one of the speakers of the joint Content Development Program in partnership with MWC Barcelona at San Francisco, California. Start-ups and freelance developers are invited and they can sign-up to the MWC website. Rival company, New Word Soft are venturing to the Artificial Intelligence devices from the start-ups as they will invest for tech innovations that will be introduced to the global market. 

Se-ju was delighted to see news from tech companies in Korea exploring new insights of what the future would look like and this drives him to pursue even more the creation of the game. He took a plate from the table to only get his few servings of seaweed soup, sundubu jjigae, paella and returned to his room immediately. Also, he played a video game once again before he settled on crafting the few details of the groundwork he needed for the possible locations of the game he programmed. 

Living in Granada, Spain provided him a breath of fresh air, having graduated on time for programming, made him explore deeply what he loved the most - gaming. Nothing beats him more than to realize that it can be a future war zone he will commit with his own sweat and blood for the remaining three years of work he will accomplish to fulfill his own - Memories of the Alhambra. 

Hee-ju, after the dinner, stayed inside her office to compute the hostel's sales this Christmas season. It was enough for the day but still hanging - from her annual sales chart due to the pile of debts of the hostel. Se-ju dropped by to her hostel office and told something important to her sister, " _Noona_ , I will go to San Francisco to meet Yoo Jin-woo." 

_"Who is it?"_

"He's a prominent tech guy in Seoul. Like, Elon Musk. He offered an opportunity to programmers next year. I will be joining. My game, they will help it to become a reality," Se-ju told her noona with a glimpse of hope. 

Being a supportive sister that she is, she agreed to join him in San Francisco for the conference as part of their holiday trip. The Jung siblings booked a flight for the following year. 

**THE PRESENT**

_Christmas Day, 2022_

Yoo Jin-woo and Jung Hee-ju arrived from Granada to spend their annual vacation in Korea with their halmeoni and siblings. They went first to Ilsan, the humble home of the Jung family. The house hasn't changed a bit but their lives were. 

It's Jin-woo's first Christmas with his newfound family. He missed the seaweed soup served to him back then in Hostel Bonita, now he's getting to taste it without interruptions. The warmth of the soup reminds him of his childhood days. 

The al fresco dinners and partying with their new found friends in Granada provided a warm atmosphere for the magic couple. Working in Barcelona was honestly difficult for him, the night train to catch up on everyday, the cognitive behavioural therapies he currently engages with after the trauma that he had experienced for the longest time from losing the three people in his past.

Min-ju took a short break from university to pursue training in YD Entertainment as a K-pop idol. When Jin-woo learned that she went from another stage of her audition as a trainee, he said to her in good spirits, "Well done, Min-ju! You didn't embarrass me." She gave two thumbs up to her _ahjussi_ , "Thank you so much. Mr. Yoo." 

She experiences a bit of inferiority to some trainees but she feels happy to be able to catch the opportunity and reach for her own success. The pressure of doing the movements perfectly, the grace she needed for her body and the joyful emotions she pours everytime she dances. She matured as a young woman yet she doesn't like to be compared by her own sister's qualities. 

Se-ju, on the other hand, experiences some amount of stress from the recent hurdles in the subsidiary. He was thankful that Jin-woo is there for him to give necessary advice for the future actions of his team. In one of their conversations at the living room, he told Jin-woo that he once witnessed him speak eloquently when they travelled with Hee-ju in San Francisco, "Mr. Yoo, even though we haven't met in person during those times, I still wanted to thank you for inspiring my work for Alhambra." 

_"What do you mean? Have we met before situations become complicated in Granada? I don't understand."_

"Ah, we went to the Silicon Valley to witness you in person but since you're popular, we just left immediately because the flight is hours away. He learned from your determination that's why he developed intricate details in the game and he tested the lenses you guys provided them when he finished his work," Hee-ju said to her husband.

Without a doubt, Jin-woo was relieved that their only memories of him with them wasn't only the hauntingly beautiful place called Granada. He laughed after learning this from the Jung siblings, "Why did you keep it to me?" "

That's the only good memory I'm holding on back then and I'm just a nuisance." Hee-ju patted his head. 

_"I'm not your child."_

_"Yes you are, ahjussi."_

After spending dinner at their family home, Jin-woo and Hee-ju treated their siblings and halmeoni for an outdoor getaway at Lotte World to sum up their Christmas feast. "Why would you bring us here?" Hee-ju asked him and she was ecstatic that Jin-woo brought her to an amusement park. 

He thought of opening her up even more about the fragments of his memories as a young child, "This is the last time my Mum and Dad brought me here as a child before they passed away from a trip. I always missed the holidays as a teenager and I couldn't help myself to imagine what can it be the moment I succeeded in JOne."

**Author's Note:**

> An overdue fic. This will get a Part 2 soon to give way to the prequel fic of Yoo Jin-woo and Jung Hee-ju's pre-Memories of the Alhambra timeline.


End file.
